Apples of gold

In my annual Christmas gathering with my book club I asked them the question that was posed by an author recently - "What book changed your life or at least had great influence on your life enough to go back and re-read frequently?"

For a reader that's a toughie! But it was fascinating to hear the choices. Some chose books from their childhoods, other's young adult and still others present-day. And amazingly, for the childhood picks, over and over they said Nancy Drew! How many children first caught the reading passion through Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys! That first magic carpet ride that lifted you above the treetops into a world of mystery and intrigue, giving you a friend beyond your daily life. That bond is repeated over and over by the best selling authors of today. They introduce you to a likable protagonist and you feel like you are shaking hands with an old friend each time you open a book in the series.

I pondered my response to the question and last week suddenly settled on the King James Bible. I must hasten to say in this context, not because of the religious part, but because the magnificent literature, the cadence of the archaic language, the exquisite imagery and yes, the stories, the stories, the stories. I feel as though all these things are layered and layered within me because of my early childhood exposure. Joyce Maynard once said that her parents raised her without any religious tenets and at first she was grateful and now resentful because her ignorance of the Bible is such a handicap in literature and art. Biblical references are everywhere!

And I feel as a writer I have benefited from that early Biblical steeping - as my mother used to love to quote from Proverbs, " A word fitly spoke is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." 

Words to savor.